AcarsDeco2 Development

[sergsero]

Hi Dick,

1. The source field specifies how the message is received. It can be directly through the local SDR receiver (RTL2832 dongle). Then it will be marked as SOURCE: AIR. Or a message could be received over the network from remote stations. in this case (for real example) - SOURCE: NET NETID: inConnect(SBS:192.168.64.182:30008).
The abbreviation A2G means downlink direction "Air to Ground" and vice versa G2A means uplink "Ground to Air".

2. I'll check this point. The column 4 (after the time stamp) is a single letter and identifies the ground station.  Because identifier '2' are exclusively for ARINC:

There are two families of ground station.  Those operated by SITA use alphabetical labels (eg 'X').  Those operated by ARINC use the identifier '2' exclusively.   If the ground station identifier is in upper case (eg 'H') then the message is from an aircraft address to the base station that has that identifier.  If the ground station identifier is in lower case (eg 'h') then the message is to an aircraft from the base station that has that identifier.  In the case of messages to and from ARINC stations the identifier is '2' in both directions.

3.  The column 6 is the acknowledgement symbol.

The symbol '!' is used to denote NACK (not acknowledged) and other symbols denote ACK (message acknowledged).  The NACK symbol is also used in messages initiated by the sender that are not acknowledging any prior message.  The ACK symbols identify the message that is being acknowledged.  The ACK symbol is the same as the message identifier that was used in the message being acknowledged.  If the ACK symbol is a letter, then the message is from an aircraft that is acknowledging a message from the ground.  If the ACK symbol is a number, then the message is from a ground station that is acknowledging a message from an aircraft.

Regards,
sergsero

[Hobbyd]

Hi Sergsero,
Thanks for the detailed explanation. Much appreciated.

Where can I find the quoted information??

Observation:
I have tried both --logfile-esbs <arg> and --logfile-sbs <arg> and tried to import the .csv files in Excel.

--logfile-esbs <arg> failed because:
a. some messages contained LF characters in the message text.
b. a lot of messages contain comma's in the message text.
c. some messages contained a semicolon although I told Excel to use the comma as column separator..

--logfile-sbs <arg> failed because:
a lot of messages contain comma's in the message text.

I think if you use a TAB instead of a comma as the column separator loading the file in a spreadsheet program (like Excel) would work much better.

Cheers,
Dick

[acarslogger]

Hi Dick & sergsero,

The acars csv file generated by the Kinetic SBS-3 encloses the actual acars message within 2 double quotes e.g

05/11/2017,09:14:31,131.725,E,F-HBXM,,16,6,M89A,YS1272,"091420,36036,1009,450.1, 6300,N5145.40 E00019.56"

Although the acars message contains commas, it loads into Excel with no problem (using my UK version of Excel).

In addition there is a well hidden option that can be used in the Kinetic SBS-3 configuration file (Basestation.ini) where you can change CR/LF found in the acars message into another character. I have chosen the vertical bar "|".
Now my SBS-3 acars csv file looks like ..

05/11/2017,09:35:56,131.725,G,N192DN,,B2,2,M67A,DL0179,"/PIKCLYA.OC1/CLA 0935 171105 EGGX CLRNCE 503|DAL179 CLRD TO KPDX VIA SUNOT|NAT B|SUNOT 58N020W 60N030W 61N040W 60N050W|URTAK|FM SUNOT/1058 MNTN F320 M080|END OF MESSAGEC344"

Again this loads into Excel.

Hope that helps.
Stuart

[Hobbyd]

Aaah yes, double quotes around fields would 'solve' the 'comma in text' problem. 
Not sure if it would solve the 'LF in text' problem, but so far I have not seen an 'LF in text' when using the --logfile-sbs option.

Thanks Stuart, valuable observation.
(why didn't I think of that?)

Cheers,
Dick

[acarslogger]

Hi Dick (& sergsero),

It appears that the --logfile-sbs output already replaces the CR/LF with a space.

For a Shanwick oceanic clearance there is normally a CF/LF immediately after the clearance number and also before and after the NAT track identifier.

My Kinetic SBS-3 acars csv output which has CR/LF replaced with a "|" looks like ...
05/11/2017,09:35:56,131.725,G,N192DN,,B2,2,M67A,DL0179,"/PIKCLYA.OC1/CLA 0935 171105 EGGX CLRNCE 503|DAL179 CLRD TO KPDX VIA SUNOT|NAT B|SUNOT 58N020W 60N030W 61N040W 60N050W|URTAK|FM SUNOT/1058 MNTN F320 M080|END OF MESSAGEC344"

The AcarsDeco2 --logfile-sbs output looks like ...
2017-11-19,12:49:53,131.825,2,N790AN,,B2,9,M86A,AA0081,/PIKCLYA.CLA 1248 171119 EGGX CLRNCE 535 AAL81 CLRD TO KDFW VIA SUNOT NAT A SUNOT 58N020W 58N030W 58N040W 57N050W HOIST FM SUNOT/1414 MNTN F380 M084 END OF MESSAGE

Regards
Stuart

[Hobbyd]

Hi Sergsero, all,

I found this line (an uplink message) in the log
2017-12-03,06:20:52,131.525,t,F-HBXO,,:;,W,,,131725

and was wondering..
- the Message label field contains ":;"
- the Block id: field contains a "W"
- the Msg. no field is empty.

Looking at all the messages that were exchange with F-HBXO (see attachment)  it seems that this uplink message instructed the aircraft to switch from 131.525 to 131.725.
Never have seen that before but maybe because I hardly get any uplinks..

Cheers,
Dick

[Attachment deleted by Admin to save file space]

[Hobbyd]

And what I forgot to mention is that looking at the file attached at my previous post it shows that F-HBXO uses both SITA and ARINC ground stations.
I expected that an operator has a contract with one or the other, not with both.

Could you check to make sure this is not a bug?

Cheers,
Dick

[Mike_n5pwp]

I've just started with v.20171115 and I'm running it on Windows 7. I have read through this whole thread and Googled all over trying to find the answers to my questions:

1.  If I use the --vrs-url switch will it pass aircraft pictures from VRS? I'm running VRS and get pictures with most of the planes VRS captures. Unfortunately it doesn't pass them to ACARSDeco2. Is it supposed to pass pictures that VRS gets from the internet  (from some server) or will it only retrieve pictures that are stored locally on the PC I'm either running VRS/AD2 on or have it stored on another drive on my network? I get ICAO information/Flag/Operator and Route info but no pictures or silhouettes from VRS.

2.  Is there a way to add routes to AD2? I have basestation.sqb and flightroutes.sqb installed in the datasets directory but I'm looking for a way to add routes that seem to be missing on local flights (I'm in the USA). Should I use the sqlitebrowser to edit the flightroutes database and then lose those additions when the next flightroute.sqb file is released? Is there a local file I can add flightroutes that are local to my area? I know I should submit them to the folks that update the databases but those databases come from the UK and seem to be primarily focused on flights in the EU. Is there a flightroutes.sqb that tracks continental USA flights?

3.  When saving the AD2 logs I've seen older versions of the ad2.bat file that show storing the logs on the D: drive. I have my AD2 installed on the C: drive. That drive is an SSD and I don't want to be constantly writing to it and want to store the logs on another drive on my network. AD2 doesn't seem to let me store the logs anywhere else but on the same drive AD2 is installed. Am I missing something or is that by design?

I appreciate Sergesero and the forum members that provide input to keep AD2 being developed. I'm really having fun using the program. I hope to be able to contribute to this in some small way.

Thank you.
Mike

[zicherka]

Hi!
I have a problem with displaying photos / images of airplanes on the site that generachi AcarsDeco2. Flags, profiles and carriers' logos (banners) are displayed correctly.
Files with pictures of aircraft have the following name convention: AB-CDE.jpg. The access path to such a single file is: /home/radar/Photo/AB-CDE.jpg. Below is my entry, which launches AcarsDeco2:
./acarsdeco2 --gain 38.6 --freq-correction 2 --freq 131550000 --freq 131725000 --vrs-url http://123.456.789.666:8080 --pictures /home/radar/Photo --silhouettes /home/radar/Silhouettes --banners /home/radar/Logos --db /home/radar/acarsdeco2/BaseStation.sqb
Can you ask for help or directing what is wrong?
Regards.

[sergsero]

Hi,

At the first view it seems that everything is correct.  And what about the rights of access to these files?
They should be accessible for readable, preferably all with the attribute: rw-r-r.

Another point, please check a records of the registration numbers of aircraft in the file basestation.sqb - are they also have a form of uppercase letters?

On the other hand, if you use option  --vrs-url for additional data from VRS, than a pictures of aircraft will be issued from the local collection of VRS, from the same computer as VRS.

Regards,
sergsero

[zicherka]

Thanks for your quick response and interest
So yes:
1- Files with photos had the attributes rw ------- (but such attributes have the mentioned flags, silhouettes and banners that work / display correctly), I changed to rw-r - r--. CRTL + F5 in the browser - no more photos. All directories also have the same permissions (Photo, Silhouettes, Logos - rwx ------)
2- Aircraft registrations are saved with BIG LETTERS - see attached picture.
3- My VRS does not have a local database with photos - all pictures are downloaded from the Internet on an ongoing basis (defaults configuration takes pictures from airport-data.com and so it is with me).
3.1 - Regardless of whether you could suggest how to make the VRS save photos of aircraft on the computer - then AcarsDeco2 could download them.
4 -AcarsDeco2 and VRS are separate machines that work in different networks and locations.

[Attachment deleted by Admin to save file space]

[sergsero]

I know about this feature (or bug) of the program and I think that in future versions of this dependency will be removed.
And while I can advise to create a local collection of aircraft pictures in the VRS, then they will appear in both programs.

Unfortunately, as far as I know, in the moment used technology - if VRS found the necessary picture on some resource on the Internet, it just inserts the URL for direct display from the resource.

/sergsero

[glenn68]

Will there ever be a map server for ACARSDECO2? Like there is on ModeSmixer2 or ModeSdeco2?

[sergsero]

Hello,

A map server needs coordinates of aircraft. However, the ARINC protocol does not provide for mandatory transfer of coordinates in ACARS's header section or messages (on VHF (AM) aircraft band 118 to 136 MHz), as in 1090 MHz Extended Squitter (ADS-B) messages.

Some operators periodically can include the coordinates in body of messages, but this happens on an irregular basis and without the standard protocol.

On the other hand, there is a test branch of modesmixer2 with indication and display of ACARS messages if it receives data from acarsdeco2 via network.

Regards,
sergsero

[Radio2.0]

ACARS Messages often Contain an Flightplan and upcomming Nav Points.